Method of making roofing



May 7, 1940. F. a. EIQHHORN METHOD OF MAKING ROOFING 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed larch 8, 1937 AKA May 7, 1940. F. G. EYICHHORN 2,199.660

METHOD OF MAKING ROOFING Filed March 8, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 him 1111 @111 Mm Patented May 7, 1940 UNl'l'E STATES 'r orrice METHOD OF MAKING ROOFING Illinois Application March 8, 1937, Serial No. 129,587

11 Claims. (CI. 1848) This invention relates'to a method of making prepared roofing'and among other objects'aims to provide roofing having grooves in upper surface. i

The invention may be readily understood by reference to an embodiment thereof-in illustra- I illustration on a larger scale; the roofing operated upon is shown in transverse section; 7

Fig.2 is a perspective view of a portion of the grooved roofing;

Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation of apparatus for transversely grooving a roofing sheet;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the grooving mechanism shown in Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a transverse section on a largerscale of the grooving mechanism illustrated in Figs. 3 and l;

Fig. 6 is a plan View of grooving mechanism of the type shown in Fig. 3,designed to form transverse grooves in limited zones of the roofing sheet;

Fig. 7 is a plan view of a roofing surface formed with so-called hexagon units provided with grooves in limited areas; and

Fig. 8 is a plan view of a roofing unit formed by an apparatus similar to 'Fig. l in which the grooves are confined to predetermined areas of the unit. v

One common form of prepared roofing comprises a base sheet of so-called roofing felt saturated with a water-proofing compound and coated with'a layer of high melting point asphalt and having an upper surfacing of granular mineral material, such as crushed slate,'embedded or partly submerged in the asphalt coating. Such roofing may be applied either in sheet form (usually called roll roofing) or as shingle units of various designs and shapes cut from the sheet roofing and laid in overlapping courses to form a shingled surface. The shingle units or other form of roofing may advantageously be superficially provided with grooves extending down or longitudinally of the roof. Among other advantages, the grooves prevent leakage by resisting the travel of rain transversely of the roof under the action of wind and otherwise prevent the development of extensive or large cracks in and through the asphalt coating of, the roofing, prevent blisters in the roofing or limit them to small areas, relieve monotony of appearance, and assist in blending contrasting color effects produced by the use of differently colored mineral surfacing material.

Efforts to produce grooved roofing of this character have not been completely successful. For example, the roofing made according to Lehon" Patent #1,518,988 initially comprised narrow valleys or grooves separated by ridges having convex upper surfaces. However, experience proved that owing to the pressure upon the relatively soft ridges when the rbofin-g was stacked in bundles or rolled in rolls after manufacture, the ridges were flattened (spreading laterally) and the grooves were reduced to relatively inconspicuous, shallow, V-shaped-notches, which, besides beingonly partly effective for their intended purposes, were so sharp as to promote the development of cracks clear through the roofing. To

avoid the development of cracks, it is important that the grooves remain relatively wide and have no sharp corners. While corrugated or embossed felt which permitted application and retention of an apparently thicker coating of asphalt (as: shown for example in Lehon Patent #1,441,861) made possible the initial formation of deeper grooves, the ridges between the grooves were, nevertheless, flattened, as above described, consequently reducing the grooves to the same relatively. inconspicuous sharp notches as in the plain felt roofing.

The illustrative roofing herein disclosed embodies an improved groove and ridge contour which is not distorted under pressure imposed thereon in bundles and rolls, but retains its original and effective contour, even when a thicker than standard coating or embossed felt is used. Moreover, under the present method of manu facture, the grooves of effective depth may be formed in standard roofing made with plain felt and the standard thickness of coating material. According to the present invention, the roofing is embossed while the coating is still relatively soft in such away as to cause the coating and surfacing material, displaced upon the formation of the grooves, to flow upwardly adjacent the sides of the grooves (instead of laterally), thereby giving the ridges between the grooves a concave, instead of a convex, contour. The improved contour is illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 5 wherein the marginal ribs 50 formed by the material displaced in forming the grooves ll, pro- J'ect above the surface of the ridge l2 and serve as two supporting points for each ridge (instead of one as formerly) when the roofing is stacked in bundles or rolled in rolls. It should be understood that the pressure in the bundles or rolls is not necessarily concentrated on the ribs alone they simply insure a wider distribution of pressure than heretofore and reduce the unit pressure sufiiciently to prevent flattening of the ridge and narrowing of the grooves. The upwardly extruded ribs adjacent the grooves also serve to in crease the depth of the grooves without involving an increase in the thickness of the asphalt and mineral coating of the roofing, and the ribs give theridges l2 concave upper surfaces which constitute secondary grooves, which function for purposes above ascribed to the main grooves, besides improving the appearance of the roofing. It is thus possible to provide apparently deep and prominent grooves in roofing having no more than standard thickness of asphalt coating, thereby eliminating the problem of distortion which is present when there are unbalanced thickness conditions on the opposite faces of the roofing.

In Fig. l is illustrated, somewhat diagrammatically, one form of apparatus for forming the aforesaid grooves and ridges. After the asphalt coatin has been applied to the saturated felt sheet and the granular mineral surfacing material has been embedded therein, the sheet is usually caused to traverse a series of cooling rolls. While the surfacing material is still relatively soft, it is passed under grooving means here shown in the form of a roll l3 having a fluted contour Id comprising a series of spaced, relatively blunt rings or teeth 55, whose depth is substantially greater than the depth of the grooves to be formed in the roofing. The grooving roll may be located to engage the sheet of roofing while it is traveling over one of the aforesaid cooling rolls or other supporting surface. The teeth l5 are spaced and shaped so that as they enter the coating material, they displace it upwardly to form the ribs if! adjacent each of the grooves, instead of displacing it laterally toward the center of the ridge i2. In the present instance, the teeth are pitched or spaced about of an inch and have a rounded end contour on a A; inch radius, making the teeth A; of an inch in width. The tooth spacing should be sufficiently great to leave a ridge of such width, that its intermediate portion resists displacement, thereby confining the displacement to the margins of the ridge and resulting in the formation of the aforesaid ribs lil which give the upper surface of the ridge the so-called concave contour which constitutes a secondary groove. Besides giving the main grooves H a greater effective depth, the ribs it serve to distribute pressures exerted While the roofing is in bundles or rolls, sufficiently to preserve the desired contour of the grooves and ridges and particularly to prevent such flattening of the ridges as would tend to narrow down and obliterate the grooves.

It is important also that the teeth be of such depth as to allow a space l6 between the roofing and the base of the teeth in which the aforesaid displacement may take place without restriction and to prevent any molding or forming action on the roofing by the contour at the base of the teeth.

While the roll l3 has been illustrated in Fig. 1 with blank sections (which do not groove the roofing-see Fig. 8) it will be understood that the roll may be provided With grooving ribs 15 throughout its width.

The aforesaid grooves may also advantageously be formed transversely of the travel of the sheet as contrasted with longitudinal formation illustrated in Fig. 1. Transverse formation is important where the shingle units are to be cut longitudinally of the sheet as is now generally the practice. Transverse groove formation also permits the formation of grooves in a limited region only of the shingle unit or roll roofing. This is not'possible if the grooves extend longitudinally of the sheet, since transversely interrupted grooves could not be made to register with the remotely located cutting apparatus.

Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate one form of apparatus for forming the aforesaid grooves and ridges transversely of the sheet. As there shown, the finished roofing sheet 20 is engaged during its transit across the conventional cooling rolls 2i by a grooving roll 22 provided with a series of grooving teeth 23 which extend longitudinally of the roll. ,The teeth may advantageously be of the same section and pitch as those shown in Fig. 1. Preferably, they are slightly skewed relative tothe direction of travel of the roofing sheet in order to effect a progressive engagement of the teeth across the sheet. Such progressive engagement distributes the resistance to the travel of the sheet caused by the embedding of the teeth therein and particularly avoids gouging of the roofing coating which might occur if the entire length of a tooth simultaneously entered the roofing. The teeth may be skewed as aforesaid in a variety of ways, such as by skewing the shaft 24 of the roll or, as here shown, by skewing the teeth 23 relative to the axis of the roll. As indicated at 25 (Fig. 4), the skewing is very slight, being in this case about of an inch across a '72 inch sheet. When laid in a roof, the amount of skewing of the grooves and ridges is so slight that it cannot be detected.

Preferably, the diameter of roll 22 is made great enough so that a plurality of teeth will be embedded in the roofing at all times, Figure 5 showing two teeth thus embedded. This arrangement materially assists in the desired upward displacement of the coating material along the margins of the ridges by confining it between a pair of teeth during formation and thereby preventing ineffective lateral displacement of the coating.

Grooving of the roofing as it passes over the curved surface of a cooling roll 2| may be utilized to compensate for slight inequalities in the thickness of the material from edge to edge. In other words, if the roll supporting bearings 26 be made adjustable as indicated by. the arrows in Figs. 3 and 4, the roll may be slightly skewed relative to the axis of the curved surface of cooling roll 2! to cause the roll teeth to embed themselves to a uniform depth in the roofing despite the fact that the material may be thinner at one side than the other.

In Fig. 6 is illustrated a method of forming roofing and roofing units in which the grooving does not extend over the entire unit but is confined to predetermined zones. For example, in the formation of so-called hexagon units 2'! wherein only the lower half of 28 of the exposed portion of the shingle tab is grooved, the grooving roll 29 is provided with the spaced series of teeth 30 of such length as to confine the grooves only to the shingle tabs 3|. As shown in dotted lines 32 in Fig. 6, the hexagon units are cut longitudinally of the sheet and the shingle tabs 3! are complementary to the spaces between the tabs, thereby making it possible with a single series of grooving teeth 30 to groove the tabs of adjacent complementary units. When such units are laid in overlapping courses as illustrated in Fig. 7, only the lower half of each hexagon out line is grooved, thus breaking and apparently reducing the size of shingle outlines, thereby making possible, without sacrifice of appearance, to use large and economical shingle units.

In Fig. 8 is illustrated another form of shingl unit comprising alternating grooved and blank areas. Such a unit may advantageously be formed by a roll like that shown in Fig. 1 wherein the rings or teeth are confined to predetermined bands or zones longitudinally of the sheet, the other portions of the roll being blank to leave the roofing ungrooved in the other zones. The units are formed by cutting the sheet transversely. They may be laid in the roof either with the plain edge or the notched or irregular edge exposed. The alternating and staggered plain and grooved shingle areas provide pleasing contrasts. Additional variation may be secured by surfacing each of the shingle areas 33, 34, 35, etc., with granular material of contrasting colors.

While the aforesaid grooves and ridges have been illustrated as straight and parallel, it should be understood that they may be made irregular and in non-parallel relationship, simply by appropriate design of the embossing roll. When extending downwardly or longitudinally of the roof, they will nevertheless function to prevent transverse travel of the rain water and otherwise in the same manner as the straight and parallel grooves.

Obviously the invention is'not limited to the details of the above-described illustrative shingle units and their manufacture, since these may be variously modified. Moreover it is not indispensable that all features of the invention be used conjointly since various features may be used to advantage in different combinations and subcombination.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. The method of grooving prepared roofing having a coating of asphalt with granular sur facing material partly imbedded therein which comprises advancing a sheet of said roofing having the asphalt coating in a relatively soft condition, supporting the back of said sheet on a smooth surface, and applying successively to the top face of the sheet while thus supported a plurality of groove forming edges, each edge being impressed progressively into the sheet from one portion of the edge to another portion thereof, so that no groove is formed simultaneously throughout its length and gouging is prevented, said edges being spaced sufliciently far apart to cause the asphalt displaced thereby to flow upwardly to form ridges adjacent to the grooves and projecting above the surface of the sheet.

2. The method of making prepared asphalt roofing with a grooved weather surface which comprises advancing a sheet of roofing material having an asphalt coated surface with granular surfacing material partly imbedded therein and while advancing the sheet impressing the weather surface thereof with a plurality of successively acting grooving teeth extending transversely across the sheet to form a succession of relatively deep grooves in said coating extending transversely of the sheet, said teeth being so positioned and operated that one tooth impresses said sheet before the preceding tooth leaves the sheet, thereby confining a strip of the coating between two teeth during the impressing operation, and said teeth being'separated far enough to prevent a substantial portion of the asphalt displaced by said teeth from flowing laterally of the grooves, thereby causing said portion to flow upwardly adjacent said teeth to form ridges along the margins of saidgrooves and projecting above the surface of said sheet.

3. The method of grooving prepared roofing having a slightly plastic coating on its weather surface which comprises advancing a sheet of the roofing material over a convexly curved supporting surface and impressing the sheet transversely to form relatively deep grooves along successive closely spaced transverse lines with a rotating groove forming roll having groove forming teeth extending transversely of the sheet and adapted successively to be impressed into said sheet, said teeth being arranged to enter the sheet along lines in the sheet at least slightlyout of perpendicular to the direction of travel of said sheet so as not to form the groove simultaneously across the entire width of the sheet, thereby preventinggouging of the coating.

4. Apparatus for grooving prepared roofing or the like having a coating of asphalt surfaced with comminuted mineral material partly imbedded therein comprising, in combination, means for advancing a sheet of said material, a member having a smooth supporting surface for supporting the back of a portion of said sheet while the sheet is being advanced, a grooving device having a plurality of grooving teeth each extending generally transversely of the direction of travel of the sheet and mounted to engage said portion of the sheet progressively from one portion of the tooth to another portion thereof to form in the asphalt coating a succession of transversely extending grooves, and means for cutting said sheet longitudinally to form shingle units with said grooves extending transversely of said units.

5. Apparatus for grooving prepared roofing or the like having a coating of asphalt surfaced with comminuted mineral material partly imbedded therein comprising, in combination, means for advancing a sheet of said material, a member having a smooth convexly curved supporting surface for supporting the back of said sheet while the sheet is being advanced, a grooving device having grooving teeth extending generally transversely of the direction of travel of the sheet, said device being mounted so that its teeth engage the upper surface of said sheet successively as the sheet passes over said supporting surface and beneath the device to formin the asphalt coating a succession of transversely extending grooves, said teeth being slightly displaced from a line in the sheet perpendicular to the direction of travel of the sheet so that each groove is formed progressively from one to the other of its ends transversely of the sheet, and means for cutting said sheet longitudinally to form shingle units having said grooves extending transversely.

6. Apparatus for grooving prepared roofing or the like having a coating of asphalt surfaced with comminuted mineral material partly imbedded therein comprising, in combination, means for advancing a sheet of said material, a member having a smooth supporting surface for supporting the back of a portion of said sheet while the sheet is being advanced, a grooving roll having a, plurality of grooving teeth extending generally transversely of the direction of travel of the sheet and being skewed relative to the axis of the roll so as to engage said sheet progressively from one portion of a tooth 'to another portion, and means for cutting said sheet longitudinally to form shingle units with said grooves extending transversely of said units.

' 7. The method of forming a series of grooves in a sheet of prepared roofing having an asphalt coating surfaced with partly imbedded granular mineral material which comprises advancing the sheet While the asphalt is warm and while supporting its back on a smooth supporting surface, simultaneously applying to the coated surface of the sheet a grooving roll having on its surface spaced apart elongated grooving teeth extending generally transversely of the direction in which the sheet is being advanced and axially of the roll and of greater height than the depth of the grooves to be formed, and rotating said roll so as to press said teeth successively into said asphalt along lines spaced sufficiently far apart to prevent substantial lateral flow of the asphalt and to a depth less than the height of the teeth so that the displaced asphalt will rise in the spaces between adjacent teeth. high enough to form appreciable ridges at the margins of each groove but not high enough to engage the surface of the roll between the teeth, thereby forming a series of transversely extending grooves and marginal ribs in said coating separated by transversely extending substantially flat areas.

8. The method of grooving the weather surface of prepared roofing having a coating of asphalt with granular surfacing material partly imbedded therein which comprises passing the sheet While supporting it on a smooth surface under a grooving roll having a plurality of spaced grooving teeth extending transversely of the sheet, said teeth being arranged to enter the sheet successively along lines in the sheet extending at least slightly out of perpendicularity to the direction of travel of the sheet so as not to engage the sheet simultaneously throughout the length of the teeth, and impressing said teeth successively into said asphalt coating to form transversely extending grooves in said coating.

e. Apparatus for grooving a prepared roofing sheet or the like having a plastic coating of asphalt surfaced with comminuted mineral material partly imbedded therein comprising in combination means for advancing the sheet, a member providing a smooth supporting surface travelling with the sheet for supporting the back thereof during said advance, a grooving roll having spaced apart independent elongated grooving teeth extending generally axially along its periphery, said teeth being relatively closely spaced and being substantially higher than the depth of the grooves to be formed, and means rotatably mounting the roll with its periphery spaced at such distance from the supporting surface that said teeth will penetrate successively into the asphalt and form transversely extending grooves therein as the sheet is advanced between the supporting surface and the roll to a depth appreciably less than the height of the teeth and the asphalt displaced by said penetration will rise in the spaces between the teeth to an elevation spaced below the surface of the roll between the teeth, so as to form in said coating a series of transverse, relatively deep grooves separated by intervening bands of asphalt.

10. Apparatus for grooving prepared roofing or the like having a coating of asphalt surfaced with comminuted mineral material partly imbedded therein comprising, in combination, means for advancing a sheet of said material, a memher having a smooth convexly curved supporting surface for supporting the back of said sheet while the sheet is being advanced, a grooving roll having a plurality of spaced groove forming teeth extending axially along the periphery of the roll, means mounting the roll adjacent the supporting member to cause said teeth to extend transversely of said sheet and to form therein transversely extending grooves in said sheet as the latter passes under said roll and over said supporting surface, said teeth being at least slightly inclined with respect to lines in the sheet perpendicular to the direction of travel of the sheet so that the sheet is engaged progressively from one portion of each tooth to another portion thereof to prevent gouging'of the asphalt coating,and means for severing said sheet longitudinally to form shingle units having said grooves extending transversely of said units.

11. The method of forming a series of transverse grooves in a sheet of prepared roofing having a plastic asphalt coating surfaced with partly imbedded granular mineral material which comprises advancing the sheet while supporting its back on a smooth supporting surface and simultaneously applying to the coated surface of the sheet a grooving roll disposed transversely of the direction of the sheet having grooving teeth disposed lengthwise of the roll and spaced about its periphery, each tooth being of greater height than the depth of the grooves to be formed, and rotating said roll so as to press said teeth successively into said asphalt with at least two teeth simultaneously in contact with said asphalt along lines spaced sufficiently far apart to prevent substantial lateral fiow of the asphalt and to a depth less than the height of the teeth so that the displaced asphalt will rise in the spaces between adjacent teeth but will not engage the surface of the roll between the teeth.

FRANK G. EICHHORN.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION. Patent-No 2,199,660. 7 May 7, who.

FRANK G. EICHHORN. It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 1, second column, line 57, for "when" read -ii--; line 58, for "is" read -be--; line 549, for "Moreover" read-However-; line 14.0, strike out the word the"; line 1L2, after and" insert havingline 1+9, after "a" insert "slightly--; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case inthe Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 18th day-of June A. 1911.0.

Henry Van Arsdale, Acting Commissioner of Patents 

